Fert is a French physicist and one of the discoverers of giant magnetoresistance. Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg were awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize for Physics for their independent co-discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance. Fert is currently professor at Université Paris-Sud in Orsay and the scientific director of a joint laboratory (‘Unité mixte de recherche’) between the Centre national de la recherché scientifique (National Scientific Research Centre) and the Thales Group.

Fert will also deliver the Physics and Astronomy Colloquium on April 9, 2009 at 4:00 p.m. in Room 150, Tate Laboratory of Physics. The title of his colloquium is "Carbon nanotubes, graphene, molecules : promising materials for spintronics."